


Considering Kate

by EnemyMine



Category: NCIS
Genre: Episode: s01e19 Dead Man Talking, Gen, Introspection, One Shot, POV Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 03:30:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11153322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnemyMine/pseuds/EnemyMine
Summary: What I think Tony would have liked to say to Kate's snide remark at the end of "Dead Man Talking".





	Considering Kate

I can't take it.   
For once I admit defeat. I simply can't take it.  
Let have Kate her moment of glory. Of finally getting one over Anthony DiNozzo, juvenile jock and clown of NCIS.

Gosh, this woman is supposed to be a profiler! And she just doesn't get it. Where did she get her degree? What do those guys in the Secret Service teach their people?

"What was it like tonguing a guy?"

Jesus, we'd only buried Chris this morning! The question was wrong on so many levels.  
How was Kate able to so easily forget, that this "guy" was not only a transsexual, but also the murderer of our colleague?

I have worked a lot with Pacci. Especially in the beginning, when Team Gibbs consisted of only two people. Whenever the boss had been called away on something a lot of people needed to know but not me, I was placed on cold case duty. Normally considered something like a punishment. But I love solving the puzzle of a crime. I don't care if the body is still warm, so to speak. 

Pacci, without a team of his own, had practically been the One-Man-Cold Case Division. I never have learned more about the NCIS evidence filing system than under his tutelage. And also whom to bribe with a box of chocolate, flowers or a nice bottle of something and where to pull out the big guns like a lunch or even a dinner, to get your evidence processed first. Especially working cold cases the lab rats tended to move extra slow. Hot cases are always worked by Abby herself, when it comes to Team Gibbs. It is only now, that Abby had started processing everything I brought her without asking first.

Yeah, little, sweet Abby took a moment longer adapting to the change of Burley leaving and me joining. Not like she did with Kate.   
Okay, so I forced the girl bonding issue a bit. I know my "baby sister". She could have taken years otherwise to even consider staying in the same room as the female agent. Fear of competition for Gibbs' fatherly love. Of not being the center of everybody's attention.  
Yes, that girl is spoilt like hell. And technically she hasn't been a girl for longer than I have not been a boy. But we don't talk about that. Ever.   
Woman's got mad skills of the science kind. Disposing of a body without leaving traces for example.

Anyway, Kate has it easy. She thinks, she is so tough playing with the big boys, wielding her gun, having protected the president. But really Secret Service – nothing but a glorified bodyguard she had been there.  
I'm not being cynic here. I've been on protection detail before. It's always the same, no matter who you are protecting. Potential threats are either lone gunmen, terror groups or accidents. You're always dependent on intelligence, a profound training and a huge amount of luck to prevent the ultimate catastrophe. Not to mention the willingness of the one, you are to protect.  
The chance of someone taking a shot at POTUS is even smaller than of an attempt on the life of some cooperate head. Too well known, too much layers of protection, to public at practical all times.   
It had happened of course. Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan... Not too many casualties considering over forty high profile international targets. Those who got killed were not protected to the optimum even for their times.  
A couple of weirdos try to jump the fence at the White House every year. There is practically at all times a threat by more than one militia or terror organization. And oh, look, not even on 9/11 they would have come even close to the President.   
And that's still not me being cynic. 

Believe me.   
I've been there for practically the whole thing. 

Just a couple of weeks before I made my way to DC, the world went *boom*. Armageddon.   
That's me being cynic!

"What was it like tonguing a guy?"

Great, Kate! Just great!

Same as it had been at college during Hell Week, when all candidates for any fraternity or sorority had to do it. I have never met anyone belonging to either, who had not been made to kiss their own sex to get in. Next to stripping down to your underwear in public, it is simply a classic of hazing the newbies. Which is the worst kept secret on any campus, so Kate has to know.

Gosh, really. It was the 21st century!

I never got the homophobic tendencies of this nation's people. What's the big fuzz? Everyone should do how they like it, as long as it is with consent.

And hadn't Kate herself delivered the information about Voss having had scheduled surgery in only four weeks time? Doesn't that highly indicate that Voss indeed not only used the looks of a woman to hide, but actually identified as one. Making him clearly a she at heart. So, okay, her plumbing had not yet been adjusted, but otherwise she was a woman. Amanda Reed.

But, again, off all people, the profiler could not see beyond her own prejudices. Nice catholic girl, Caitlin Todd, could of course neither condone a sex change nor homosexuality. Agent Kate Todd however has sworn not to discriminate. No discrimination of any kind of victim, suspect or witness. If only to not to falsify the results.

Oh, I get it. I'm an easy target. But only because I made myself one.  
Kate would never think that Gibbs would actually ask me about matters of this team. Me, goof-ball, jock, womanizer, frat-boy, Peter Pan. Right?   
She seems to have forgotten fast that I'm with Gibbs for two years now. That's the second longest anyone has ever stood being subordinate to the second B. Three more years and I will be unbeatable. I plan long term here.

I owe Gibbs. 

Not the way Kate does. She fucked up at her old job by having that affair and got caught. If Gibbs hadn't already considered offering her a job, she would have been left out in the open. Things like this stay with you. The private sector, bodyguard duties for some rich people, maybe.

No, I owe Gibbs for being there, when my partner had fucked up and I just could not stay. It would have been difficult finding a new department, the fourth one in eight years. They would have questioned whether I was somehow damaged goods. But the jump to a federal agency – a step up the career ladder. But that's not what I owe Gibbs for. 

No, Gibbs simply has been there for me. When Danny turned crook. When Wendy left me the night before the wedding. When my apartment became unlivable. When I have too much energy and don't know where to put it. When I forget to eat, because all my focus is on a case. Or my brain goes into overdrive and therefore somewhat away from me. That's what I owe him for. For giving me perspective, hope, a goal, regular meals and even headslaps. 

As unlikely as that seems, but I am thankful for that. Gibbs is the first one in my life, who ever cared enough. That's why I'm going to stay and break that record. And I'm going to be here, when Gibbs hands over his badge and gun and I will be the one, he's going to give it too. 

See, I've never been sent to FLETC, Gibbs considered me good enough to learn whatever I would need on the job. I did. Not like I hadn't had enough experience anyway. I stayed a Probationary Agent for the full six months and suspected a regular time as Junior Agent, but only another six month later I got promoted. Senior Field Agent after only a year. Not bad for a cop. Don't know what Gibbs had threatened Morrow with and I don't care. I know I earned it. Work the hours I do. And you know, what I mean. 

I had my first "Probie" around that time too. Sad thing about "Probies" on this team, you should better not get used to them. Fluctuation is high. Something about Gibbs being too hard on them, demanding too much.   
I don't know, what they mean. This is an investigative team. We're on call pretty much all the time and cases have the tendency to go cold after seventy-two hours. Best to have them solved by then. Depending on the nature of the case, that could involve around the clock investigation.   
Of course you'll get shouted at after two days with little to no sleep and nothing to show for. Especially when you're not able to do the simplest things on your own.

"Boss, shall I put out a BOLO on that suspicious van?" 

"No, of course not. Why follow up on our only lead into the kidnapping of a five year old girl?"

Err, yeah, that Probie was gone only an hour later. 

The first one to stay beyond the first month had been Vivian Blackadder. A little behind the learning curve and a little too driven by thoughts of revenge and a little too FBI. If she had not been responsible for blowing that op, she might have had a fighting chance to shape up with the terrorist who was responsible for her brother's death out of the way. But she had blown that op and that was unforgivable.   
Six weeks including a full Court Martial. Not bad.

Kate was not faster in getting up to speed. Really! Even Vivian had known not to wear heels at a crime scene. Of course she doesn't know, that Gibbs and I have permanently bets running on things like that.   
Also Vivian had balls too. Kate is not the only woman, who is able to grow some. She will not be the last. I have seen even more ballsy women on the force – and on the other side of the law. Again, 21st century. Most women today know when and when not to shy away from conflict.

For the rest they have me. Because that's the game plan here. Gibbs' second, remember? It's my freaking job, to get those probationary agents up to scratch or to exploit their weaknesses, so they can get weeded out. 

Kate's weaknesses are her prejudices and preconceived notions. Two of them are in the forefront and actually in conflict with each other.   
As a woman in a male dominated field, she struggles. Because in the world according to Kate Todd all men are either just trying to get into her pants or are out to put her down. So, when Gibbs had liked her initiative and ability to stand up to him and therefore offered her a job, we had spent some time deciding on a strategy on her training.  
Yes, she's supposed to aim her prejudices at me. Better me than our victims. The best way to keep them aimed at me is playing up the frat-boy act. That's the horror for modern women. Boys, who are hormone driven and don't take anything seriously. Yeah, we knew, she would love to hate me.  
At the same time I'm her superior. It might not seem that way most of the times, because it's always "Gibbs this" and "Gibbs that", but I am not above pulling rank if I need to. I am the Senior Field Agent and I'm damn good at my job.  
Which I use to baffle her, to keep her on her toes around me. Yes, she is supposed to have a surface to attack in my frat-boy persona, but she has to respect and trust her team mates, her superiors.

Oh, Kate is being played so badly. Even getting her to bond with Abby that fast was part of it. Abby is weird about new people. She has problems to adapt that way. She refused to call me anything else but "Not Stan" for a couple of months and I'm really likeable, if I say so myself. Vivian, probably because of the female factor, was acceptable after four weeks. But since she was forced out only two weeks later and Kate was the first new female agent since then, there was no telling how long Abby would have taken to allow her in.   
Would not really be a problem, if Abby's not accepting you as fully there also meant she refuses to talk to you without Gibbs present or him having ordered her to do it. She will still do her job, but it all becomes complicated and when time is of the essence you really don't want to deal with that too.  
So I played dumb, had Gibbs play along and forced a bonding moment between them. Bang! 

She met us about a year ago and will be with us around half of it. She should know by now. Hints were dropped left and right. I share my knowledge, that's part of me being a good trainer, but also one of these hints. I know my craft and if she truly believes, Gibbs only could have hired me because of my smile, she has another thing coming. As if!   
I solved his damn case for him, doing all the legwork, while he dodged calls from his soon to be ex-wife!  
Okay, okay, I'll headslap myself for that. He worked his fraud case, I worked the homicide and in the end we got our bad guy and I needed to get the hell out of Dodge. I smiled, yes, but only after he had me already at the Navy Yard. That devious, devious man!   
Knew exactly how to handle me back then, knows how to do so now.

Maybe it's time, I change the way I handle Kate. Frat-boy was nice to get her settled in. It's time for her to realize that's she's playing with the big guys now. The real big guys.   
We are the major team in the major office of the entire agency. We are the standard. Our closure rate was never allowed to drop, no matter if it was just Gibbs, Gibbs and me or now Gibbs, me and Kate. And it never did. 

I always say "Work smarter, not harder". Kate never has seen the huge amount of paperwork I have to do as part of my job. She thinks my days consist of playing Tetris, goofing around and somehow being lucky to provide results.   
Well, Caitlin Todd wants to play with the big boys, she'll have to learn to work like one. No more velvet gloves, no more pulling the punches. She wants to become Senior Field Agent one day and she is behind the learning curve.   
Her grouping at the shooting range was sub-par. Stamina was okay. Agility – Yoga does help obviously. Fighting skills – she relies too much on classical martial arts techniques taught during FLETC, but scumbags do not tend to bow before delivering the first punch.   
So, I see more gym time for Team Gibbs in the future. Until now she only sparred with me, I think she needs to get first hand experience in how Marine's fight. 

For the administrative part. I guess, it's time to hand some paperwork over to her. Requisition of material would be a good start. It's offering a wide variety, does not look like much, but involves a lot of getting used to, running around and planning in the beginning. Like finding out, that there are certain schedules for ordering material that have to be minutely kept or it will not be there on time. One month without a new cell phone for a certain boss had been enough to learn that lesson.  
The shelves are stocked right now. That should keep for a couple of weeks and I have most forms already prepared for the next ordering cycle. So I could dump the job on her, see her flounder and still prevent the ultimate catastrophe.  
Yes, that's what I'm going to do!

"Don't play to dirty, DiNozzo!"

"Never, Boss. Not on the job at least."

"I know."

Told you, I have a say in matters of the team.

*whack*  
"Don't be cocky."

"Me? Boss, you're hurting me!"

"Yeah, you.... It's been a long day."

"Home?"

"Yup."

"On it! - Gibbs?!"

"Mm?"

"It was not real."

"I know, Tony. I know."

"Wish I could have the real thing."

"Me too, Tony. Me too...."


End file.
